Preordered the game last second because the campaign looked very promising as per usual with any Call of Duty release. Not finished with the campaign but so far I am having a great time. Some very intense moments and even on Veteran difficulty it's not unforgiving. Characters are very well acted and set pieces are amazing, some instances I felt myself looking at the environments more often than I probably should. Even on a standard Xbox One the graphics are top notch, can't wait to upgrade to a Series X. Haven't played multiplayer or zombies but it's as to be expected from any other Call of Duty release I'm sure. Was a big fan of Cold Wars Zombies mode. Long story short, 7/10 so far for, amazing acting, graphics, smooth gameplay, great story.
34 Reviews
Ehh
ianshedron2 January 2022
Ok so I've played most of the story and it was pretty fun, but the game is very disrespectful to the men who fought in ww2. There were never any women in ww2 leading a team into war. This game is very unrealistic and disrespectful towards men. Activision is very liberal and wants to push there whole agenda on a ww2 game. Multiplayer isn't bad!!
Niot as bad as people say
igorkieczka-9084631 March 2022
Vanguard Review
ziqryhuzairy14 November 2021
Let's talk about the campaign first, is it iconic? No. Is it revolutionise campaign? No. Is it decent? Yes. Especially the last cutscenes, that part tells a lot about Vanguard crew moving on foward. As a cod player that part really gives me chills. The middle part of the campaign is pretty bland. Too much backstory, less present events. It brings back that Cod WWII speciality from each individual. Which is great!. The characters, i would say some are iconic like Arthur and Polina but others aren't that memorable.
Zombie. This is the most disappointing zombie yet. Don't get me wrong but Vanguard's movement and engine compliment the horror vibe in zombies. I like that a lot. But the mode isn't doing it for me. With no pack-a-punch camo, no easter eggs, no wall buys. It really ruin it for me. But i can see a normal round base map work perfectly in Vanguard's theme. Looking forward for a massive improvement.
Lastly let's talk about the main mode for cod games. Multiplayer. It's a blast. Graphically stunning, great map flow. Really make me hooked up to the mode. The operators bonuses helps us grind for those camos. The movement is nevertheless perfection to the mode. But weapons needs a lot of balancing, glitches that is needed to be fix. Also the SBMM is very heavy, i would suggest for you not to sweat that hard. Try manage your K/D as near as 1.00. That will place you on the perfect lobby, not that sweaty and not that chill.
Is it the best cod? Not at all but it's a good game in the cod franchise.
As soon as Warzone Pacific release, Vanguard will gives you all the benefits to actually try the game. Same rewards and same movement system.
The theme is also repetitive, WW2. I know they could find something better than this soon.
Zombie. This is the most disappointing zombie yet. Don't get me wrong but Vanguard's movement and engine compliment the horror vibe in zombies. I like that a lot. But the mode isn't doing it for me. With no pack-a-punch camo, no easter eggs, no wall buys. It really ruin it for me. But i can see a normal round base map work perfectly in Vanguard's theme. Looking forward for a massive improvement.
Lastly let's talk about the main mode for cod games. Multiplayer. It's a blast. Graphically stunning, great map flow. Really make me hooked up to the mode. The operators bonuses helps us grind for those camos. The movement is nevertheless perfection to the mode. But weapons needs a lot of balancing, glitches that is needed to be fix. Also the SBMM is very heavy, i would suggest for you not to sweat that hard. Try manage your K/D as near as 1.00. That will place you on the perfect lobby, not that sweaty and not that chill.
Is it the best cod? Not at all but it's a good game in the cod franchise.
As soon as Warzone Pacific release, Vanguard will gives you all the benefits to actually try the game. Same rewards and same movement system.
The theme is also repetitive, WW2. I know they could find something better than this soon.
Multiplayer great. Zombies awful
awhelan-398609 November 2021
Pleased to see a lot of cool new features added into this game, especially the addition of being able to select combat pacing. Gameplay feels like a big improvement. For me the multiplayer would be a 9/10 if it had better maps, but unfortunately some of them feel a bit boring.
Zombies on the other hand is sadly the worst I've ever seen it by quite a landslide. It no longer has the feeling of being dark and scary like WaW zombies was, and instead feels like a bit of a ridiculous arcade game. The addition of things such as elder gods, flying orbs and land barriers etc totally ruin the feel of zombies mode for me. If you play with zombie health bars on (another thing I think is ridiculous for fortunately can be turned off) then you'll find that the game is just a big clump of colours flying all over the place. I have no idea why they'd decide to get rid of round based zombies in favour of this but hopefully they'll change their minds soon, and let it return to its roots. If zombies was still the same as the Waw and Black Ops days, then I would say that this game is the best Cod we've seen since the PS3/360 days and would probably deserve a 10/10. However as it is it's probably a 7.5/10.
Zombies on the other hand is sadly the worst I've ever seen it by quite a landslide. It no longer has the feeling of being dark and scary like WaW zombies was, and instead feels like a bit of a ridiculous arcade game. The addition of things such as elder gods, flying orbs and land barriers etc totally ruin the feel of zombies mode for me. If you play with zombie health bars on (another thing I think is ridiculous for fortunately can be turned off) then you'll find that the game is just a big clump of colours flying all over the place. I have no idea why they'd decide to get rid of round based zombies in favour of this but hopefully they'll change their minds soon, and let it return to its roots. If zombies was still the same as the Waw and Black Ops days, then I would say that this game is the best Cod we've seen since the PS3/360 days and would probably deserve a 10/10. However as it is it's probably a 7.5/10.
Copy and paste of recent CODs with historical inaccuracies
rwburkey-6577510 December 2021
Was so excited for this game but am extremely disappointed. Mechanics are copied from cold war and MW. Campaign has numerous historical inaccuracies, theres combat shields in ww2, and reticle attachments that weren't introduced until the 1980's. Game also crashes consistently. It seems that Call of Duty let interns create their game to see how it would turn out/if consumers would still purchase the game and battle pass. 0/10 would buy, 10/10 would wait until Modern Warfare 2 comes out next year.
Amazing
rjmorton-2175121 November 2021
Average
cchenders409 July 2023
First off to the people giving this anything below a five stop. At a base level a game this pretty, this polished, with this many modes, that runs this smooth gets at least a 5. Tell me you haven't played broken or bad games without telling me you haven't played broken or bad games...
This game is fine. Here are some positives and negatives.
Positives
Negatives
In a gaming industry where releasing broken, unfinished games with little content and few modes this breaks the mold, it just does nothing to stand out.
This game is fine. Here are some positives and negatives.
Positives
- Polished
- graphically sunning
- good performances in the campaign
- runs at a smooth 60.
- generally fun
Negatives
- The multiplayer experience just is not on the level of a black ops or MW.
- The campaign while fun has a boring story that feels aimed at casual gamers who like lots of cursing, bad humor, and explosions.
- the progression is mid.
- the hero shooter elements suck.
- zombies is legit terrible but I am glad the option is there.
In a gaming industry where releasing broken, unfinished games with little content and few modes this breaks the mold, it just does nothing to stand out.
Bad
grintoslav23 December 2021
The Best Call of duty since Modern Warfare 2019 and WW2 2017
jamesarooney19 December 2021
Amazing gameplay Realistic Gun sounds Bear McCreary does a amazing Score Call of duty vanguard is highly recommended if you like Brutal multiplayer I haven't had this much fun in years I felt this was a big step up from Cold war because of its questionable multiplayer but its still fun none the less The lovely Laura Bailey is in the game she's great.
A waste of money!
redcodex45310 December 2021
There is a whole world of difference between Vanguard and Cold War.
Campaign - It's alright, nothing great.
Multiplayer - Pretty average, the operators are quite horrible though Zombies - Could not have done a worse job. I don't understand how a game can get worse from being the best at Zombies. I'm going back to play zombies on Cold War. This one is just ridiculous.
Please allow players who have bought all games to merge and play as they feel like. For example - It would be pretty cool if I could use weapons from Warzone and Vanguard to play Zombies in Cold War.
Since Dec 6th you've already merged the ranking progression. Why not do this as well?
It also really upsets me how they took the battle pass o it of Cold War and restricted it to Vanguard. Might as well let us have a crossover. We already gave you the money ; now give us what we want!
Campaign - It's alright, nothing great.
Multiplayer - Pretty average, the operators are quite horrible though Zombies - Could not have done a worse job. I don't understand how a game can get worse from being the best at Zombies. I'm going back to play zombies on Cold War. This one is just ridiculous.
Please allow players who have bought all games to merge and play as they feel like. For example - It would be pretty cool if I could use weapons from Warzone and Vanguard to play Zombies in Cold War.
Since Dec 6th you've already merged the ranking progression. Why not do this as well?
It also really upsets me how they took the battle pass o it of Cold War and restricted it to Vanguard. Might as well let us have a crossover. We already gave you the money ; now give us what we want!
Best Call Of Duty!
sarakrier6 November 2021
I had low expectations, Vanguard was even worse than expected.
oliverpolyzois13 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Campaign, boring story that sets up a second game. Basically all you do is play a bunch of stories of different characters past, and these characters together need to team up and beat the token Nazi bad guy in the end. The characters are bland and boring, they are friends from the beginning. No drama, no spice to the relationships between the characters. There are no collectibles, there is a bunch of scripted gameplay, you have to always follow the chosen and scripted path. The AI is dumb. The campaign is also very short, it takes about only 4-6 hours depending on how fast you are, (half of the time you basically just watch cutscenes). The only good thing I can say is that the graphics are the best in any COD game so far, (at least on PS5), and that the cutscenes are really well made, they basically look just like a movie. Campaign overall is really bland, and definitely does not do anything new we haven't seen before.
Multiplayer is OK, the time to kill is really fast, meaning that you only need better reflexes than the guy trying to kill you. There are a lot of maps (20) at launch. And now you can chose how many players there should be in your lobbies, meaning that you can chose how fast paced you want to play. There is also a new game mode, it's basically hard point but the POI is constantly moving around.
Zombies is so barebones this year. There is ONE map, NO Easter Egg, NO playable characters, NO wonder weapon, NO ray gun. You can't pause the game on solo, after three minutes of not playing (when going for a bathroom break) you get KICKED from YOUR SOLO GAME for being inactive.
This is one of the most generic Call of Duty's ever made, it's even worse than average. Nothing new to add, nothing to say. I do not recommend this game, not even on a sale. 4/10.
Multiplayer is OK, the time to kill is really fast, meaning that you only need better reflexes than the guy trying to kill you. There are a lot of maps (20) at launch. And now you can chose how many players there should be in your lobbies, meaning that you can chose how fast paced you want to play. There is also a new game mode, it's basically hard point but the POI is constantly moving around.
Zombies is so barebones this year. There is ONE map, NO Easter Egg, NO playable characters, NO wonder weapon, NO ray gun. You can't pause the game on solo, after three minutes of not playing (when going for a bathroom break) you get KICKED from YOUR SOLO GAME for being inactive.
This is one of the most generic Call of Duty's ever made, it's even worse than average. Nothing new to add, nothing to say. I do not recommend this game, not even on a sale. 4/10.
campaign and graphics were cool.
merem124 December 2021
I enjoyed this game. The campaign was pretty fun. The sniper lady section of the game was the best. The graphics are awesome. The action was thrilling. I like the weapons in the game. The ending was satisfying. I look forward to the next call of duty game. I think it could be a sequel to the 2019 modern warfare game. That'd be great.
Wow
samuelmills-8101727 December 2021
I set my expectations low but I still was disappointed. :(
johnnyjohnjohnsongoo12 November 2021
You may think Im a halo or battlefield fanboy, but no, I love fps and I love call of duty. My first call of duty, funnily, was world at war, and I can just remember how magical it was for to play it. To this day it is my favorite call of duty along with bo1. Now, you may have probably seen my 4/10 am immediately thought my review was nonsensical but hear me out. All this criticism is in hopes of a better future.
REVIEW STARTS HERE: I will review the 3 aspects of the game and rate each of them
Campaign: Terrible, just terrible. One of the worst Cod campaigns in history. It has you playing through flashbacks of the main characters past. The idea was terrible and the executions was also terrible. This campaign felt like it was setting up for a story, not making its own story. The gameplay is also bad, as the game holds your hand throughout the campaign, and doesn't give you any freedom. Although being linear doesn't make a campaign bad, if the story is bad as well, there is no redeeming part about the campaign. It was no fun to play through the campaign but to be fair, campaigns aren't the real attraction of the game.
1/10
Multiplayer: While not great, it is definitely the best portion of this game. The multiplayer is not bad, but it takes a step back from past call of duty multiplayers. It is generic, and it feels as if you played the same thing before. Cold war did not have a great multiplayer, but at least it did not devolve in the same way vanguard did. Sure, there is combat pacing, which seemed like a super innovative idea, but in practice, it either made the game insanely slow, or you getting killed as soon as you spawn. The game lacks the balance between both. I need not talk about sbmm as there are already enough issues.
5/10
Zombies: Zombies is generally that last source of entertainment, for bad a call of duty. Its generally a redeeming part of the game. In fact my enjoyment of many recent cod games as purely relied on zombies. The sad thing is, that treyarch, the zombie king, managed to mess up zombies. It is so hard to do that. They have removed all the fun and quirky guns, and zombies literally was a breeze. There was no content. It was literally multiplayer maps thrown in, and you shoot at hordes of zombies for about 1 hour. Thats it, and zombies is done. Zombies was terrible.
1/10
Overall Multiplayer is the core part of the game, but that game lacks anything significant that makes it new and enjoyable. Instead, it ends up being a massive step back from past cods. The zombies and campaign were even worse. It is hard for me to play this game, and I will likely not touch it again when battlefield 2042 and the new warzone map comes out. This was sad but expected. :(
REVIEW STARTS HERE: I will review the 3 aspects of the game and rate each of them
Campaign: Terrible, just terrible. One of the worst Cod campaigns in history. It has you playing through flashbacks of the main characters past. The idea was terrible and the executions was also terrible. This campaign felt like it was setting up for a story, not making its own story. The gameplay is also bad, as the game holds your hand throughout the campaign, and doesn't give you any freedom. Although being linear doesn't make a campaign bad, if the story is bad as well, there is no redeeming part about the campaign. It was no fun to play through the campaign but to be fair, campaigns aren't the real attraction of the game.
1/10
Multiplayer: While not great, it is definitely the best portion of this game. The multiplayer is not bad, but it takes a step back from past call of duty multiplayers. It is generic, and it feels as if you played the same thing before. Cold war did not have a great multiplayer, but at least it did not devolve in the same way vanguard did. Sure, there is combat pacing, which seemed like a super innovative idea, but in practice, it either made the game insanely slow, or you getting killed as soon as you spawn. The game lacks the balance between both. I need not talk about sbmm as there are already enough issues.
5/10
Zombies: Zombies is generally that last source of entertainment, for bad a call of duty. Its generally a redeeming part of the game. In fact my enjoyment of many recent cod games as purely relied on zombies. The sad thing is, that treyarch, the zombie king, managed to mess up zombies. It is so hard to do that. They have removed all the fun and quirky guns, and zombies literally was a breeze. There was no content. It was literally multiplayer maps thrown in, and you shoot at hordes of zombies for about 1 hour. Thats it, and zombies is done. Zombies was terrible.
1/10
Overall Multiplayer is the core part of the game, but that game lacks anything significant that makes it new and enjoyable. Instead, it ends up being a massive step back from past cods. The zombies and campaign were even worse. It is hard for me to play this game, and I will likely not touch it again when battlefield 2042 and the new warzone map comes out. This was sad but expected. :(
Boring
zacharystephenson4 January 2022
Trash junk garbage
grahambuilder23 December 2021
I only play call of doodie for the zombies. I have no words but RUSHED TRASH to describe this dollar store version of what is supposed to be COD ZOMBIES. It's like they just do not care what the fans wanted at all. Sledgehammer did a great job with WW2 zombies in 2017. I would have been very happy with a remastered version instead of this vanguard garbage.well everything comes to an end eventually .
Call of Duty has lost its way
paulpittaway202018 March 2022
I was going to give this 3 stars because the graphics are very good. I changed my mind and opted for 2 stars because the ending was so feeble. The main characters are bland, although there are a couple of subsidiary players who almost make the game worth playing. For example, Desmond 'Des' Wilmot part of an Australian contingent deployed in Tobruk; he had a great sense of humour. Also, the D-day landing in a glider was impressive, as was piloting a plane off an aircraft carrier, but the rest is just a lazy repeat of previous COD missions.
Nope nope nope.
bgdxmsk15 February 2022
Waste of money. Campaign, multiplayer, graphics, weapons are all trash. Don't even waste your time on this game. I really tried giving this game a chance but it just overall was a complete let down. Some people like it, it's just not for me.
Absolutely Terrible!
laurencelai29 May 2022
I usually only play infinity wards call of duty series. However, now as I have to wait a whole 3 years before they release a new game - total playtime 49 days plus. I was tempted, after achieving almost every challenge in MW 2019 to purchase vanguard reduced by 50%.
I've played for 9 hours and I simply can't bear it anymore. I have never felt "buyers remorse" more in my entire life. I feel as though I've been conned.
The maps, although looks great are awful, there is absolutely zero joy! The spawns are absolute nonsense , AND I started to record to the game play - wondering if it was just me, but it turns out, most the the times I'm killed - it's by an invisible enemy - of which you definitely cannot see, but also cannot hear due to a ridiculous perk called ninja - which is dead silence ALL THE TIME.
Additionally - what's the point of a map when you can literally take aim and shoot through everything anyway.
I will never, ever ever ever ever fall for this trap again. Absolute time wasting trash.
Had hoped for a good WWII game, apparently it didn't do so well because it was set in WWII. The truth is, even if it was set on Pluto in the year 3000 it would still be utter crap!! I feel completely offended by this game and shocked it was allowed to be released. Even the trial / free weekends don't allow you to experience the terrible game, gameplays and awful maps p. Das Haus! For example is a map - (if you can call it that) Seriously! They should just remove this abomination from the game entirely. I feel as though they owe me an apology!!
Infinity ward should have their own games - far far far away from being anywhere near repeated to this bottom of the barrel junk!!! I wish I had 2 extra hands so I could give this game 4 thumbs down. I also wish I had not bought the digital version - but a disk. So I could launch it out of the window!!!
I've played for 9 hours and I simply can't bear it anymore. I have never felt "buyers remorse" more in my entire life. I feel as though I've been conned.
The maps, although looks great are awful, there is absolutely zero joy! The spawns are absolute nonsense , AND I started to record to the game play - wondering if it was just me, but it turns out, most the the times I'm killed - it's by an invisible enemy - of which you definitely cannot see, but also cannot hear due to a ridiculous perk called ninja - which is dead silence ALL THE TIME.
Additionally - what's the point of a map when you can literally take aim and shoot through everything anyway.
I will never, ever ever ever ever fall for this trap again. Absolute time wasting trash.
Had hoped for a good WWII game, apparently it didn't do so well because it was set in WWII. The truth is, even if it was set on Pluto in the year 3000 it would still be utter crap!! I feel completely offended by this game and shocked it was allowed to be released. Even the trial / free weekends don't allow you to experience the terrible game, gameplays and awful maps p. Das Haus! For example is a map - (if you can call it that) Seriously! They should just remove this abomination from the game entirely. I feel as though they owe me an apology!!
Infinity ward should have their own games - far far far away from being anywhere near repeated to this bottom of the barrel junk!!! I wish I had 2 extra hands so I could give this game 4 thumbs down. I also wish I had not bought the digital version - but a disk. So I could launch it out of the window!!!
Not for one player
slkmarley14 January 2022
I am not a fan of this game any more, I am a single player and do not like playing on line, in the past the single player part of the games have been a reasonable length. But this one was very disappointing, the whole game took me just 3 x 2.5 hour sessions to complete the whole game. And for the cost of the game is not in my opinion value for money.
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